LIFE QUOTES XXIII

quotations about life

Life is short, if we are only said to live when we enjoy ourselves; and if we were merely to count up the hours we spent agreeably, a great number of years would hardly make up a life of a few months.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères


Life is nothing but a statement of what happens to be.

GLEN DUNCAN

The Last Werewolf

Tags: Glen Duncan


Life is getting what you want, and I'm better at life than you are.

JEFF ABBOTT

Adrenaline

Tags: Jeff Abbott


Life is an incurable disease.

ABRAHAM COWLEY

To Dr. Scarborough

Tags: Abraham Cowley


Life is a process of modification and descent, rather than genesis. There was never a moment when an egg hatched a brand new thing called a chicken, or when a chicken produced, unexpectedly, something bizarre called an egg.

JOEL ACHENBACH

"The 4 biggest milestones in the history of life on Earth", Albuquerque Journal, September 1, 2016


Life is a constant series of new and familiar challenges, adversities that wax and wane until the end.

ANDREW PASCHAL

"Singles Going Steady", PopMatters, September 1, 2016


Life doesn't have a neat beginning and a tidy end; life is always going on. You should begin in the middle and end in the middle, and it should be all there.

V. S. NAIPAUL

Half a Life

Tags: V. S. Naipaul


Life at the greatest is but a froward child, that must be humor'd and coax'd a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The Good-Natured Man

Tags: Oliver Goldsmith


Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

WILLIAM JAMES

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Tags: William James


If you always do the easy and comfortable thing, life ends up being difficult and uncomfortable. If you do the difficult and uncomfortable thing, however, life ends up being easy and comfortable.

ERNIE J. ZELINSKI

Look Ma, Life's Easy

Tags: Ernie J. Zelinski


If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death
Perhaps the world can teach us
as when everything seems dead
but later proves to be alive.

PABLO NERUDA

Extravagaria

Tags: Pablo Neruda


If people knew the story of their lives how many would then elect to live them? People speak about what is in store. But there is nothing in store. The day is made of what has come before. The world itself must be surprised at the shape of that which appears. Perhaps even God.

CORMAC MCCARTHY

The Crossing


I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull, as ever admit it; and I do believe that if we busted out and admitted it sometimes, instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years, and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity, why, maybe, possibly, we might make life more fun.

SINCLAIR LEWIS

Babbitt

Tags: Sinclair Lewis


How good is man's life, the mere living!
How fit to employ
All the heart and the soul and the senses
Forever in joy!

ROBERT BROWNING

"Saul"

Tags: Robert Browning


From whatever point he starts, whatever path he follows, modern man comes to the same conclusion: behind its visible appearances, life hides a meaning that is eternally inaccessible to penetration by the spirit that seeks for its discovery, caught in the dilemma of being aware that it is impossible to find it, and yet also impossible to renounce the hopeless quest.

ARTHUR ADAMOV

"Le refus", L'Heure Nouvelle


The realization that life is absurd and cannot be an end, but only a beginning. This is a truth nearly all great minds have taken as their starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but the consequences and rules of action drawn from it.

ALBERT CAMUS

attributed, Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd


The meaning of our lives is revealed through experiences that at first seem at odds with each other--moments we wish would never end and moments we wish had never begun.

JOHN ELDREDGE

Desire


Real life seldom structures a decent denouement.

DAN SIMMONS

Hyperion

Tags: Dan Simmons


Much too oft we make life gloomy--
When happy we might be,
If we gathered more of sunshine,
And not dark shadows see.

ARDELIA COTTON BARTON

Thoughts


Man reaches each stage in his life as a novice.

CHAMFORT

The Cynic's Breviary